Bide Your Time
by DragonNikol
Summary: Jesse dies (Sorry to all those who really like Jesse, his spirit may make an appearance!), his cousin moves next door to the team and turns into Leon’s responsibility. Could this be trouble for the team or just for Leon? Read to find out.
1. Chapter One

Chapter One

The young woman pulled up to the house. 'Jesse said he'd be waiting for me. That was only two weeks ago.' The girl thought as she turned off the engine to her Nissan 240sx. She stepped out of her car and walked up to the porch, sat on the front steps and waited. "Where are you Jess?" she wondered out loud as she waited for him.

She looked up from the ground when she felt someone watching her. She looked around and saw who was staring at her. She smiled slightly. She sighed when the person started to walk over. Her jaw dropped when she realized who it was.

"Leon?" she asked shocked. The shock was evident on her face as she stared at him.

"Angel, I thought it was you," he said stopping in front of her.

She stood up and gave him a hug. "It's so nice to see you again. I noticed that entire house watching me as I moved my stuff in a few weeks ago. I saw Jesse then, and he said he'd be waiting for me when I actually got settled. Speaking of Jesse, where the hell is the God of all Machines?"

"Angel, something happened a couple of days after the last time you talked to him. Tran, he…he rode by the house and shot it up and…." Leon trailed off. It still hurt not having Jesse around all the time.

"And….what Leon? C'mon. Tell me you lopsided fool." Angel pleaded. Leon just looked away from her and watched as the rest of the team walked over to them. "Leon," Angel said sternly. Leon's shocked eyes looked back into hers, "tell me, right now."

"I…I can't," he said defeatedly. The stinging in the side of his face made him rethink his decision and his promise to Jesse before he died. He grabbed her hands. "Don't you dare hit me again," he hissed.

"Then tell me where he is Leon. Tell me." Angel practically begged. She hated begging, especially for information about the only family she ever cared about. Well, he was her cousin by marriage but he was still family either way or not. She watched as Leon slowly began to crack.

"Don't do it Leon," the bald guy said.

"Yeah Leon. You promised Jesse you wouldn't," said a woman with waist-length black hair.

"We may not know who this chick is Leon, but you seem to know who it is. But you did promise Jesse," said a woman who seemed tough.

Angel listened to the people who continued to remind Leon of his promise to Jesse. She finally stopped listening and walked up the front steps and unlocked the front door. She saw something lying on the table just inside. She picked it up and read what the name was. It was for her. Her name was in Jesse's handwriting. She ripped open the envelope before reading.

This is what it said:

"Angel. Hey little cousin. I'm sorry I'm not there to meet you. I know I said I would be but then I didn't know that I was gunna get shot." Angel looked at Leon shocked and pissed. "Don't be mad at Leon for not saying anything to you about it. I made him promise not to. If you get this, I'm probably dead. No, scratch that. I am dead." Tears were starting to well up in Angel's eyes. "You get to have my dad's Jetta. Sure he wouldn't mind, though I doubt he could have a say in it anyway. Just remember I'll always love you and don't do anything stupid to yourself. I know you that well little cousin." Angel smiled slightly at that line. "Dom has agreed to let you work at the garage. And Mia has also agreed to let you work at the store when you can't handle the garage work during the week. There is no mortgage to your house. I made Dom promise to pay it off for me when he got back from Mexico. This is all that I can say before I go. Just remember little cousin, I love you and Leon has promised to take care of you." The people with Leon watched as Angel finished the letter that Jesse had had Mia write while he could still talk. The letter wasn't even in his handwriting.

"NOT FAIR!" Angel screamed a few minutes later. She ran from the foyer and up the stairs to the room that was claimed as hers. The door almost slammed but Leon caught it as it almost made contact with the doorjamb. She turned on Leon. "Get out, Leon. I want to be alone!" She threw a pillow at him. Leon caught the pillow and threw it behind him as he rushed forward and grabbed ahold of her. She looked up at him with tears spilling over the rims of her eyes. "Leon, please. Please let go." She murmured, barely audible to Leon's ears.

"No way Angel. I made a promise to a friend and I intend to keep this promise." Leon looked Angel in the eyes.

"Why? Why did you promise? You…you could've said that you'd try instead of out right promising. You could've just tried." Angel sobbed into Leon's chest as his arms pulled her tighter against him.

"Remember when I promised I'd love you until the day I died?" Leon asked a couple hours later. They were lying down on Angel's bed.

She nodded. "Yeah, and then you called one day out of the blue and told me you had found someone else to love. That had hurt a lot Leon. It really did." She looked at him sidelong.

"I know. Jesse nearly took my balls off for it too. Dom had to practically fly Jesse to where ever you were living in order to calm him down." Leon smiled at the memory of Jesse trying to kill him with a butcher knife.

"Yeah it was funny how Jesse acted like an older brother especially when I came to visit. He especially watched when me and you were together." Leon laughed along with Angel. She snuggled closer to Leon. "I've missed you Leon." Angel murmured as she began to drift off. It had been a long day, for everyone involved.

After making sure she wouldn't wake up, Leon slipped off the bed. He looked back at her once before pinning the note on the door before opening it and leaving, making sure to close it silently behind him. Once downstairs he made sure all the windows and doors were locked before leaving and closing the door behind him. As he walked into the Torretto household, he was nearly bowled over by Vince and Dom. Letty and Mia were sitting in the living room, watching.

"Well, who is she?" Vince asked excitedly. Leon just looked at him and shook his head.

"You don't remember? She nearly knocked you over with her fist two years back." Leon said pushing past his friends and entering the living room. Dom and Vince followed.

"How'd she take it Leon?" Dom asked as he took his seat next to Letty once more.

Leon shrugged. "As good as expected I guess." Leon didn't look at anyone after that as everyone was sitting within the tension-filled room.

Next door Angel was awakening from unconsciousness. "Where the hell?" Angel looked around and then she remembered the events of that day. She groaned as she got up off the bed. She spotted the note from Leon as she was about to open her bedroom door. "Leon." She shook her head going down the stairs. "Now what am I supposed to do with this big house? It's just me living here." When she opened her front door she found the entirety of the street racing world of Los Angeles on her doorstep. Her mouth dropped open with shock. Leon approached her and gently pushed her jaw up.

"That's not very becoming Angel." He whispered in her ear as he stood in front of her. Angel glowered.

"Oh yeah, since when, Le?" Angel crossed her arms over her chest and arched an eyebrow wryly.

The people out front laughed at Leon and Angel chuckled as she shook her head slightly. "Come on in then, if you're coming." She turned and walked back upstairs to change real quick. Once inside her room, Angel sighed dejectedly. She didn't want to live by herself, but she had to, in order to trust again – she just had to. Besides, she promised her parents before they died that she would trust others, even if she didn't know them that well. 'GAH! I hated them for all their pep talks and shit. Yet here I am following avidly given advice and their courage is what keeps me going.' She had just sat down on her bed when a knock at the door sounded. "Come on!" she called as she began to put her combat boots on. The door swung open to reveal Leon with a sly little grin on his face. She looked up just in time to see a flash of light then spots faithfully appeared in front of her. "Damn it all to Hell and back Leon! You are so dead. When the spots go away," she added as an afterthought and only muttered to herself. As she finished lacing up her left boot she could hear _her_ music floating up the stairs. "Shit!" she bolted out the door and hurried down the stairs and stopped short.

She was in the middle of the living room with people she didn't know surrounding her and…applauding. She groaned inwardly. "Leon," she growled dangerously. "You had better run while you still can." Leon only smiled and took off out the front door. "I am so gunna kill him." She headed for the door but someone stepped in front of her. She arched an eyebrow curiously.

"I wouldn't kill Leon just yet if I were you." The man's voice was like her Nissan's tires crunching gravel beneath them.

"Unh- hunh" she said indifferently. "He messed with me, my turn." She pushed her way past the man and out the front door. She looked around and saw that Leon's Canary Yellow Skyline was gone. "Why that little son of a bitch." She shook her head then unconsciously traced the scar that wound its way up her left arm. Her fingers found her one of many tattoos, which happened to be her favorite out of all the ones she had gotten. It was a black rose with its petals wide open in bloom and it was slightly raised. The tribal ring at the head of the rose's stem, just below the flower head, had the word "fin" hidden within. 'Fin. It is finished. How ironic. My favorite saying in the world and it is ironic to the life I'm living now.' She shook her head as she turned to go back inside.

The sound of a motorcycle made her stop. She turned around and saw a yellow and black Ninja 260 roaring towards her house. She rolled her eyes at how the rider rode his bike. Too tense. The rider stopped in front of her house. As he got off his bike, the rider took off his helmet and set it on the seat. By this time, Angel was breathing hard from pure rage.

"Son of a bitch. Why the hell are you here Tran?" She called from the porch.

He glanced in her direction. "To apologize." He sounded calm, but he was far from it.

Angel snorted derisively. "Bullshit. You knew Jesse was my cousin and you also knew that you and your lousy cousin would be asking for whatever came ya'll's way." Angel jumped off the porch and once she landed, headed over to Johnny Tran. She was like a tiger in its natural habitat, dangerous and liable to kill. She stalked her prey as a tiger or a wolf might. She smiled a cold smile as she advanced on Tran. "You see Johnny, when you mess with my family or their friends you become lower than the dirt I walk on. Therefore you are not worthy of the beat down you are about to receive on behalf of my cousin Tran." Angel was now face to face to Johnny Tran. With the added height her combat boots provided her, she and Tran were nose to nose. "You see Johnny, that when you hurt someone it comes back to yourself ten times what you did to the last person you ever hurt. And from what I have gathered since the last time I was here, you have a hurt a lot of people Tran. I think I have some things that may belong to you."

Johnny Tran, to say the least, was intimidated and terrified of the woman before him. He looked around frantically for someone to help him. He found no one willing enough in all the faces that he looked upon and pleaded for help. He saw no sympathy in the eyes of the very people he talked down to and raced against. His own family kicked him out of his house and made him take of his himself from then on when they found out that he had killed someone. Of course, it really didn't matter that Lance had fired shots off too, but the repercussions never bounded back as hard on Lance as they did on Tran.

"What the hell do you want me to say Dragon? I'll never do anything to harm your family or their friends?" Tran copped an attitude.

Angel swung and landed a good punch to his nose. Tran grabbed his nose as Angel did an undercut to his stomach. She continued to beat the shit out of him until she was pulled off. Angel whirled around and swung at the same time but the attack never landed. Her arm was caught in the air not even two inches from the target's face. Her eyes widened when she realized it was Leon who had pulled her off of Tran.

"Leon, you just saved his ass," Angel said in a low growl. Leon just looked at her before shaking his head.

"No, I saved you." The reply was simple, but not entirely correct. Leon looked over at Tran. "You better get out of here Tran before I let her go at you again." Tran nodded.

"I wouldn't show your face around the races any more Tran, or your precious rep goes down the proverbial drain." Angel couldn't help but add her two cents. Tran answered in a glare before taking off back the way he had come. After Tran was gone, Angel and Leon faced each other as the other racers began to disperse from her home. Angel's right hand slapped Leon across his face. "How dare you. You had no right, he deserved it Le! Like…." Leon grabbed her hands roughly.

"What did I say about slapping me Dragon?" Angel looked away. "That's what I thought. Now, what the hell were you thinking? Beating Tran? What's happened to the girl and then the woman I love?" Leon's voice was soft as he said the last sentence.

"I don't know. Le, did you just say…love?" Angel's eyes held hope in them and such innocence to mask her inner turmoil.

Leon smiled. "Yes, I did say it.

a/n: listen up everybody. I'm back and in full force. This fic may be better than my last ones so…review review review! Thanx! xangelx


	2. Chapter Two

Months passed since Angel had moved next door to the team. The team called it Leon's and Angel's house because Leon spent so much time there. Today was Angel's birthday yet her family still sent her gifts of all sorts. She got a brand new laptop from her mom and step-dad. She got a "super race car", as her brother put it, from her ten year old brother. Her dad got her a five disc cd player for her car. Leon got her a computer loaded down with car design equipment among other things. Dom, Mia, and Letty pooled together and got her a paint booth at the garage with all the equipment from Vince and part from Leon.

"Jesus," Angel breathed as she looked around the booth. "Is it big enough?" She whirled around and looked at her friends all skeptical like. They all laughed at how childlike she looked.

"She looks like Jesse every time he was near a tricked out car he wanted to get his hands on." Letty looked at Leon as she said this as if gauging his reaction. Leon glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes and shrugged. The others nodded in response to the given comment.

"They're cousins Let, I wouldn't have expected less of her. Then again if she hadn't shown any evidence of her time with Jesse, then they were never as close as he said they were. She is our savior and Jesse knew it the very instant he invited her to LA the very first time." Mia was acting like an animated cartoon as she spoke. She was using her hands and arms to do most of her talking for her.

Angel turned around just in time to see Mia finish her extremely small speech. She started laughing. "Mia, there's just one thing you need to get straight. I may be like Jess in many ways but I am not Jesse. Besides, we have a ton of differences that neither of us could hide from. For him it was ADD, for me it's my choice in guys." That got a few smiles. "Me and Jesse are great at hacking into almost any computer on the planet; I was just stealthier at it than he was." That got some laughs. 'Thank God!' Angel shook her head as she thought that one and only simple line. She dared not to say it out loud. Ever since she found out and became part of the team no one once cracked a smile or even laughed. It was just starting to grate on her nerves when she thought she heard fierce whispering from behind her. When she turned around, she'd found Mia heatedly talking while her face got red from trying not to scream. Mia's face was priceless. She was opening and closing her mouth like a fish out of water. Mia's brows furrowed and then she scowled. Angel just shook her head as she turned back around and continued to study the booth. It was awesome. 'I could definitely put some of my drawings on the walls after they've been primed.' Angel smiled as she started to think up how she was going to put her drawings into real life situations on the concrete walls of the booth. All at once her smile faded. "If only Jess was here to see this." She whispered this as everyone headed to work on whatever it was that needed done. A tear made its way down her left cheek. She quickly wiped it away before anyone saw. She sighed as she started to practice with the airbrush and air gun.

Dom realized something as he started to walk away from Angel. He turned around and walked back to her. "Angel," Dom said as he walked over to her.

"Yeah Dom?" She turned around from her work on the huge pieces of cardboard from where ever Letty got it. She had started to write Jesse's name in a black soft block outline.

Dom froze. She was good. She was really, really good. He shook his head. "I was just wondering what you're doing later after work."

She laughed. "Dom you should know. You said you were gunna take me to Harry's store for paint and parts for the fixer-upper car you had planned for me to work on. 'Member?" Dom grinned, but nodded and walked away. 'Thank god. I can finally get back to this.' She finished practicing and then she started to decorate, in great detail, the concrete walls of the booth.

Lunch had come and gone and none of the team at the garage had seen any sign of Angel since she started to paint the booth. Letty couldn't take it anymore and went to find out what was going on with Angel. As Letty walked into the booth she saw Angel bent over and doing something with a huge permanent marker. "Whatcha doin Dragon?" At the sound of Letty's voice, Angel whirls.

"Oh my god Let." Angel shook her head. "Just adding a final touch to that particular corner." Letty walked over and read what Angel had written.

"Fin?" Letty looked really confused.

"Yeah, it's my most favorite Latin saying. It means, it is finished or the end." Angel picked up a clean rag from off the counter next to her. Angel watched as Letty backed up to admire her handiwork. "You like?"

Letty glanced at Angel sideways. "Yeah it's awesome. You should let the others see this." Letty watched as Angel picked up a water bottle and took swig.

"They will, eventually." Angel smiled as she set the water bottle down on the counter. "Sides, what's for lunch? I'm starving." She hopped down off the work stool and sauntered over to Letty. They laughed as Angel pushed Letty almost over. Angel laughed and took off before Letty could catch her.

They ran for five minutes around the booth until Letty almost caught Angel and she took off through the main area of the garage. Angel ran around the guys and she stopped behind Vince, using him as a human shield. Vince started to laugh as Angel turned him every which way trying to get him between herself and Letty. Then Letty swung with her left fist and it connected with Vince's jaw. Everyone stopped dead. As Vince straightened up Letty backed up a couple steps as did Angel. Angel and Letty were the only ones who could hear Vince's teeth grinding. Angel winced as Vince slammed his fist into the brick wall of the garage. Letty had turned and ran the other direction

"Vince I…I'm sorry. I…" The hand that Vince held up silenced her then and there. He turned to her and just gave her a look that portrayed every emotion that he was feeling at once. Tears formed in Angel's eyes and she turned and ran to her car. Leon tried to stop her but to no avail. She sped off after exchanging a few words with Leon.

Leon looked as if he could kill. He walked over to Vince. "What the hell did you do to her?" Leon didn't yell so they could tell that he was pissed. Vince just glared at him. "Why are you mad at her when Let was the one who punched you?" Vince just looked away. Leon stalked off having given up on trying to get through to Vince.

Angel just drove after leaving DT. She really didn't care where she went so long as it was away from everyone else. When she finally stopped the car she realized she had ended up at the cemetery where Jesse was buried. She walked around looking at the different headstones. She crouched in front of Jesse's headstone as she ran her hand over the smooth surface. "Jesse, if you only you could be here. If only you hadn't have raced against Tran. If only I had been here to talk you out of racing your dad's Jetta period, then maybe you would still be here." A sad smile played across her face as she remembered a saying she once heard. "I know that 'if only' don't cut it but that's just how I feel about things lately. Maybe if I hadn't of grabbed V then maybe he wouldn't be mad at me." By this time Angel had sat down with her back against Jesse's headstone. She yawned and she then realized that she had been there for nearly three hours and she left for her car. As she got inside her car, a couple of really tuned cars pulled up and blocked her from making an escape. When the two people got out of the cars, Angel realized that they must have been looking for her since they got off work. She sighed then got back out of the car.

"Hey guys. Uh…what's up?" Angel smiled but it was tentative.


	3. Chapter Three

Angel sighed as she followed Vince home. She was between Leon and Vince; they didn't trust her to drive home by herself. Once they reached the house, she went straight to her room without looking at anyone and declined Mia's offer of dinner. She wasn't hungry. A few hours, that was all the time she thought that had passed. Not practically all day and half the night. But now that she had thought it over, she realized that she had turned off her phone after they had tried to reach her the first five times. The only thing she had wanted more than anything in that precise moment was to just get away for a little while. She didn't like it when Vince was mad. She didn't like the way he acted when he was mad at somebody. Now almost everyone was pissed at her for running off without talking to them first. She sighed as she got ready to go to bed.

She was very confused about everything lately. She didn't know whether to just answer Leon about dating him or tell Vince she would date him and blow Leon clear out of the water with her answer of no or just blow them both away by declining both requests and date someone totally different from either one guy on the team. Dom was off limits but he still treated her like a little kid and she was starting to get a little tired of it. Letty didn't like her attitude so much anymore and Mia didn't like shopping with her. Leon and Vince were mad at her right now about her running off.

"Screw them," she muttered as she made her way to the bathroom. "They need to get over it and stop competing over me. I just don't know what to do. Jesse please send me a sign of any kind cause I could really use the help right now. It's been almost a year and still nothing of an answer could I give them. I think they're starting to get fed up with me." She sighed as she just let the warm water cascade down her back and just soothe her tense muscles. 'I can't go back to my house cause I just don't feel like dealing with Leon right now. I can't stay here either cause I have no great desire to really deal with Vince or Dom either.' She sighed as she got out and dressed. She waited until she was certain there was no one outside the bathroom door. Except when she opened the door, there stood Vince. Vince had his arms crossed and a scowl on his face. She gulped soundly. "Hey, V…. Uh…how's it going?" She knew it was the most stupid question to ask especially after she caused him to get hit in the face by Letty. A blue and black bruise was already starting to become visible on his face. She sighed before she addressed him again. "Look, I'm really sorry for what happened at the garage today. I didn't mean for Let to hit you, honestly I didn't. We were just messing around and she started to chase me and then I grabbed you as a human shield and then the next thing I know you're getting a knuckle sandwich." She said this all in one breath and now she simply waited for the eruption of the volcano that was Vince. During her little semi-speech, Vince's face got darker and darker with every word. This caused Angel to become really scared.

"Angel, me and Leon need an answer from you. You're killing us with this waiting. I wasn't mad at you or Letty; I was upset yeah but not mad. I could never be mad at two people who I care so much about. You scared me when you took off and then you turned your cell off which scared me even more cause I thought something bad had happened to you." Angel's eyes turned into those so much like a deer's, when it's caught in the headlights of a car.

"But, I wasn't trying to scare ya'll or anything like that. I just wanted some space, from you two, from every little thing that I can't hide from. If I can't hide or run from something then I become like a caged lion or bear. I get real mean and take it out on anyone I can or something like that. I had it spelled out for me once, by someone who couldn't stand to watch me run from things that I couldn't hide from." As she talked they walked to Vince's room, which caused Leon to get jealous. She sat down on his bed and he sat on the floor, after locking his door. He thought that this was a private conversation and didn't want any unwelcome visitors entering while they were talking. Angel only raised an eyebrow at him but didn't say anything. "No one could understand back then that I didn't want to run nor hide anymore. I just wanted someone to talk to and that person to listen to what I have to say and not just half listen and then blow me off like I didn't matter. I already felt as if I didn't matter and I hardly had any self-worth and it wasn't until my aunt got married to Jesse's dad that it came to my attention that I was more important than I thought. Jesse realized that I just wanted someone to pay attention to me and to listen. No one was willing to do that back then but Jesse was. Every time I would say something and no one acknowledged that I had even spoken, Jesse would take me aside and ask me to repeat what I had said before, away from everyone else. I wasn't wanted in my family. I was just a nuisance to them. My parents had died when I was a baby; I believe I was one or two when they died. My aunt was my mom's only living relative. My dad was an only child and his parents had died way before I was born. My mom's parents had died about two weeks after I was born." Angel stopped to think about that last statement then shrugged when she couldn't think of a better way of saying it. "Anyway, Jesse was the only one who really cared. My aunt and his dad didn't like that he listened to me. They didn't want to put silly notions of working on cars or racing or even driving into my head. They thought that that wasn't the right place for a girl of my status in their society, that's one of the reasons why Jesse left in the first place. He didn't like the way they treated me then. After he left, I started to change, dramatically. I went places with my friends, I got a drivers' license." At this point Angel was on the verge of tears and Vince sat next to her with an arm draped across her shoulders lightly. "I started to take auto tech classes, after I took all of my required courses and then some. All that I needed and wanted was a tech class of some kind and I didn't want HomeEc with all the girly girls." Angel showed disgust on her face when she said girly girls. "When my aunt found out she was furious and then she became even more furious when she found out that she couldn't take me out of those types of classes cause I already had a number of grades by the time they found out. Of course by this time, Jesse's dad was in jail for trying to kill…someone and my aunt wasn't very happy that…that someone got him put there. My aunt just couldn't understand why I was changing or why I changed from the girl I was to the girl I had become. I talked to Jesse every now and again and he understood why I was changing or why I changed. I needed the change and so I left one day after my aunt had left for work. I had been tempted to just burn the house and all the horrific memories buried within the walls. I would've gotten caught so I packed everything I had and came here. I had tons of money that was in the bank from my parents' will. They left me millions from all their savings and insurance. They had cashed stock bonds and everything like that. I was eighteen and I graduated. I had been told upon my eighteenth birthday that I was able to dip into this type of fund, because it was all mine. Little did I know that my aunt and uncle had been dipping into it generously and never did put it back into the account. When the bank and I found out about this we both pressed charges and after my aunt was in jail and a couple of years were added to my uncle's first jail sentence I left. I never looked back. I never went back to visit any of my old friends and since Jesse was, basically, the only family I had left I came out here. It was then that he had first asked me to live here in the City of Angels. Except that back then I just wasn't ready to live with a bunch of people I had barely known for more than two weeks. That's why I decided to move in next door when I saw that house was for sale. Every time I had come to visit, I would look over at it and just have this feeling of longing for it. That's why I grabbed at it the first time I found out it was up for sale and I'm glad that they let me have it for the price I had asked. It really would've been a shame to buy that house for their asking price. When they found out that they had bids even lower than mine I guess they decided whoever was the closest to their asking price did they let me have it." Tears were now pouring down her face and were like streams coursing down her cheeks. She didn't bother trying to dry them. She was letting years worth of tears flow. She didn't know that she had had any tears at all to shed for all the shit she'd been through since she was old enough to talk.

Vince just held her as she cried and cried. After a certain point he didn't try to coax her into telling him more. He figured she would tell him more when she was ready or wanted to. He waited for her to calm down. She did, eventually. It felt like hours and it probably had been hours. Vince started to lie back on his bed, taking her with him. After he got settled, she curled up into his side. "You can sleep down here if you want. You don't have to go home or even upstairs if you don't want to," he whispered so as not to scare her. She just nodded. Pretty soon they were both sound asleep with Vince's door still locked.

Hours later Angel started to wake up when she felt like she was being watched. When she opened her eyes she found Vince watching her. She smiled.

"Hey V." He smiled back at her.

"Hey yourself beautiful." She laughed. He frowned at her.

"I think maybe you need to have your eyes checked out there V." She slipped to the edge of the bed. She could feel his eyes follow her.

"Really? Then why do I feel the way I do around you?" Vince nearly growled. He didn't like it when she talked that way.

"I don't know. Maybe you just like the challenge of trying to get me in bed." She shrugged as she stood up, well tried to anyway. When she went to move up off the bed, Vince grabbed her wrist and pulled her back down.

"You know better than that Angel. I feel this way about you cause of the way you are and the way you do things your way and you don't let anyone talk down to you except maybe Letty but she's a totally different story. You're sexy, sweet and very smart. Unlike me and all the other girls that I've dated in the past. You're way smarter than me."

"No. You have more street smarts than me." Vince just looked at her and she looked away.

Vince reached over and gently turned her face towards him with his index finger. "You listen to me Angel. You have more street smarts than almost every girl I have ever known or know now. You are crazy around cars that you like or want to get your hands on. No girl except for maybe Letty is like that. When you tune cars in the shop I can't help but watch you and most of the time I end up working alongside you." Angel smiled at the comment. It was true, he always ended up working with her and she helped him with the car he needed to get finished. "Angel you need to understand one thing and that is you are gorgeous. You are fucking dead sexy in some of the things you wear out to races and I can't help but get excited when I see you every week cause I get all hyped. I like mysteries and that's what you are, a mystery, and I love it. And I think I've fallen head over heels in love with you." Vince's voice dropped at the end of his impromptu speech. He hadn't known until that moment how speechless Angel could get when the right words were used.

Angel just stared at Vince for what felt like eternity for both parties. She opened and closed her mouth several times like a fish gulping for water. Until, finally she found the exact words she wanted to use to relay her feelings for Vince, the one person who she thought couldn't make it through her defense systems.

"V," at the sound of her voice, Vince looked at her and waited patiently but expectantly. "V, I think I've fallen head over heels for you too." She looked away but looked back at him quickly with the biggest smile on her face. Vince thought that she could light the whole world up with her smiles, when she really smiled.

Vince couldn't resist the urge to lean over and kiss her.

a/n: sorry took so long….had to finish chapter 2 but there it is and chapter four is in the works…it should be up soon I hope plz review xangelx


	4. Chapter Four

He slipped closer to the edge of the bed. He brushed his lips gently against hers. She responded and tried to push herself closer. He wasn't having it, though, he wanted to go slow, in case she decided to change her mind. He realized that she wasn't going to change her mind. They started to kiss harder and they got closer and closer with every passing second. After a while, the need for air forced them to break apart. Vince happened to glance over at the clock and groaned. It was about midnight. They had only been asleep for a couple of hours the previous night and then they had spent all day in his room, sleeping off the previous night's events.

"You do know that we've been in here since after your shower last night?' Vince raised his eyebrow as he asked her that question.

"Yeah, kinda figured that. Do you find it odd that no one has come to get us?" Angel looked at him as Vince plopped back down on his bed.

Vince sighed. "They probably tried but gave up after like the fifteenth time of trying." Vince chuckled. Angel laughed outright. Vince watched her as she laughed and realized that he wanted to do right by this woman who acted so much older than she really was. As he leaned over to kiss her, banging started to come from the door. Vince growled as he got up to answer it. Angel sighed dejectedly, if that was Leon how was she supposed to face him now that she told V how much she really liked him, she even told him she loved him. That wasn't too far from the truth actually, she thought, I really do love him. But how am I supposed to tell Leon? She looked up when she heard Leon's voice sound from the other side of the door. "Leon, we've been talking nothing else." Vince sounded as if he was trying to not let Leon into the room. Leon pushed his way in anyway.

"Nothing, huh?" His voice sounded way too high for him. "Then why she is crying!" Leon nearly screamed it but not quite, he simply decided to raise his voice even louder than it already was, which wasn't saying much. Vince's head swung over to Angel and his eyes took in her tear-stained cheeks and slightly puffy eyes.

"Leon, V didn't do anything to me. Like he said, all we were doing was talking. Um…why don't you sit down Le." Angel was scared, Vince could tell. Leon leaned against the wall next to the door instead. His face was hard and had an unreadable expression. Angel bit down on her lower lip. "Leon," a sigh interrupted her. "Leon, why don't you just go to bed and sleep off the alcohol you've ingested?" She was really scared about his reaction while he was drunk. Leon's eyes narrowed but he left anyway. Vince watched as Leon left without so much as a 'goodnight.' She looked up at Vince. "You do understand that I didn't want to tell him while he was drunk, right V?" Her voice sounded childlike for someone who seemed so confident and could be outspoken if she really wanted to be. But she doesn't really want to be confident or outspoken, Vince thought, she simply wants to disappear or so it seems by how she's been acting lately. Vince nodded. Angel smiled a liquid smile as she laid down after he did.

"I'm not keen on having Leon pissed off at me either." Vince chuckled. Angel rolled her eyes at him. Vince laughed and pulled her closer.

Angel climbed the basement stairs the next morning pretty slowly. When she reached the kitchen catcalls and whistles were blown her way. She glowered at the team in the kitchen. She growled.

"Don't say a single word and no one gets hurt." She wasn't in the mood to deal with them and their teasing about being in Vince's room for two whole days.

"Did you get any?" She shot Letty a look that told her 'no' in one swift glance.

"No. Leon came down last night though and I tried to tell him about me not really liking him that way anymore but I just couldn't do it. Plus he was drunk so I really wasn't keen on telling him then." Angel sat at the table and put her head in her hands. Mia set a plate of pancakes in front of her. "Thanks Mi. Are these blueberry pancakes?" Mia nodded. Angel narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "Okay, you don't make me specialty pancakes unless I've done something to either piss you off or something that you really like." Mia and the others just looked at her like she was crazy.

"We're just happy that you chose Coyote instead of Leon." Letty watched as Angel's eyes turned to steel, but she kept eating the pancakes.

"Thanks for the pancakes Mia. I think I'll head home and then head to the garage for awhile. I got some touchups to do to that Honda Civic." Angel felt everyone's eyes on her back as she left via the back door. Angel sighed as she leaned against her kitchen door. Leon had left her a note on the kitchen table.

_Angel,_

_I know you have something you really gotta tell me. Please wake me up when you get this._

_Leon._

"Hmmm. Aiight Le, I'll wake your ass up." Angel crumpled the note in her hand before heading up the back stairs to Leon's room. Angel didn't bother to knock on Leon's door before entering his room. She thought about how to wake him up and then decided to just jump on the bed right on top of him. She took a running start and leapt onto Leon's bed. Leon sat bolt upright causing Angel to sit up before they bumped heads. Angel started laughing at the look on Leon's face. He was shocked senseless and he had a slight hangover from all of the alcohol he had had the previous night.

"Angel, why the need to jump on my bed?" Leon asked this while trying to reach the bottle of aspirin sitting on the nightstand next to his bed.

"You said you wanted me to wake you up when I got home. I only did what I was told." She stuck her tongue out at him. "Why did you want me to wake you up anyway? Aside from the fact that you think I have something to tell you?" Leon just looked at her, like, 'You gotta be kidding me.' "What?"

"I know you Angel, come on. Tell me?" Leon looked a like a baby when he asked her that. 'He is so shameless when it comes to me.' Angel thought sardonically.

"Okay, so I have something to tell you. So what? No big in any case." Angel shrugged as she got off of Leon's bed. Leon followed suit. He grabbed her arm before she made it out of the bedroom door. She whirled, her arm up and her hand balled into a fist, ready to strike. Her eyes widened and she dropped her arm immediately. "Sorry," she mumbled.

"Angel, c'mon, just tell me before something happens and you never get the chance to tell me. Please?" Leon watched intently as she fought with herself about whether or not to tell him. She sighed and he took that as his cue he could let her go without her running off.

"Aiight, I'll tell you. Sit down."


End file.
